"Only because I saw him shove a body into the car first and then take your cell phone away. I was too far away to do anything, and then when you guys went flying out of the garage, I kind of freaked."

"And how does Lexie come into all this?" Haden asks.

"She happened to be down the street at the moment. I didn't have a car, so I kind of commandeered hers."

"You mean you kidnapped her so you could stop me from kidnapping Daphne?" Haden asks. "Talk about irony."

"Hey, I offered to pay for gas," Tobin says.

"If you thought I'd been kidnapped, why didn't you call the police?"

"Because the call would have been rerouted to Olympus Hills security, . . . and you know how reliable they aren't, and . . ." He shoves his hands in his pockets. "I thought if I followed him to wherever he was taking you, I might be able to find Abbie."

"Oh." Suddenly any humor I'd found in the situation is gone. Tobin was still desperately searching for his sister, who could never be found.

"But you're telling me you aren't kidnapped. You're heading heaven knows where with this guy on purpose?" he asks.

"Vegas," I say. "We're headed to Las Vegas."

Tobin's jaw drops ever so slightly. "Why?" he asks like he doesn't quite want to know the answer.

I look from Tobin to Haden. Haden shakes his head once. I ignore him. "We're headed to Las Vegas to find an Oracle," I say.

It's time to start telling the truth.

"You people are insane!" Lexie says from the backseat of the Tesla. "Insane! Oracles? Monsters?

Underworld princes or whatever? You've all flown over the cuckoo's nest and you're trying to drag me with you!"

Overall, I'd say they've taken the truth-or partial truth- rather well. Especially Tobin. He sits stoically in the middle row of the Model X, his hands clasped in his lap.

Haden was the one who insisted that both he and Lexie come with us now. Tobin had come willingly, saying that he wasn't going to let me go off to Vegas with Haden alone. Lexie had been another story.

I thought we should let her drive herself back home, but Haden had made the valid point that we couldn't trust her to not tell somebody where we went. Which means between her and Garrick, we have two captives in the car.

"This Oracle," Tobin asks. "Do you think she can tell me how to get my sister back?"

"Possibly," Haden says as he changes lanes. We're about twenty minutes outside of Vegas and the traffic has gotten heavy.

Both he and I have evaded most of Tobin's questions about Abbie. I plan on telling him the whole truth, but not here. Not now. That is a private conversation that doesn't need Lexie shouting about our sanity in the background.

"There's no such thing as Oracles!" she says.

"Can somebody make her shut up?" Garrick responds, holding his head.

Maybe I should have let Haden knock Lexie out in order to get her in the car. Instead, I'd held her Hermes purse hostage until she agreed to get in.

Haden changes lanes again. He glances in the rearview mirror. "Harpies," he mumbles.

"What is it?"

"I think we've got another tail. Don't look back. Use your mirror. But I think that motorcycle is following us. He's been in my rearview mirror for the last hour. He changes lanes every time I do." I pull down the sun visor and angle the vanity mirror until I can see who he's talking about. There's a rider dressed in all black leathers on a black bullet bike behind us. He's wearing a full-screened helmet that makes it impossible to see his face.

"Who do you think it is?"

"I don't know, but I certainly don't think it's another one of your friends. Simon says he'd send someone after me if I ever left town again. He also said it wouldn't be a pleasant experience." A strange tone comes off his body and he white-knuckle grips the steering wheel. It makes me wonder if he's thinking about what happened to Dax and Abbie when they tried to run away. "I think I've seen this same guy around Olympus Hills a couple of times. He's probably been following us since we left, but I was too distracted by Tobin to notice."

"Do you think we can lose him?" Tobin asks.

"Maybe." Haden glances at me and then points at the touch screen in the center console of the car.

"This thing has a Web browser. Use it to get on to YouTube. I want you to do a search for evasive driving techniques in heavy traffic."

"Seriously?" Tobin asks.

"I am being completely earnest."

"Fawesome," Tobin practically squeals.

"Or maybe 'how to lose a tail in a car chase' or something like that." I type in a few options until Haden tells me to stop. I click on the video and we watch as we idle in traffic. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that YouTube has an instructional video on evasive driving techniques, but still, I'm not sure how this is going to help. I can barely understand anything the drivers in the video are saying, let alone remember any of it.

"Okay, that's good," Haden says. "Everyone buckled in?"

When traffic breaks up a bit, he changes lanes, then changes again until we're speeding down the HOV lane.

"This is so not legal!" Lexie shouts from the backseat.

Haden swerves the car back into the left lane and then the middle lane. I can't handle it. I grip the oh-c.r.a.p bar above my door and close my eyes as hard as I can. I get a little carsick from the jerking motions of the car as Haden weaves through traffic. At one point, we're sailing forward again and at another, we're flying in reverse!

Lexie screams.

Tobin cheers like he's on a roller coaster.

And Garrick groans like he's about to throw up.

I suddenly question whether I ever want to get my license if there are drivers like Haden on the road.

The car stops reversing and whips to the right. I can tell we're getting off the freeway. Three more sharp turns follow, but I don't open my eyes until we come to a stop. We're sitting in an alley somewhere in Las Vegas proper.

"I think we lost him," Haden says, breathing hard.

Garrick opens the door, stumbles out into the alley, and pukes. I cringe at the sound.

"We need to find a place to hide. We've got to get off the streets before we're spotted again. Find someplace to stay overnight if we have to."

"We're in Vegas," Lexie says. "Pick a hotel, duh."

I raise my eyebrows, surprised to get a suggestion from the "captive" portion of our audience. A hotel is the obvious answer.

"I can't use my credit card," Haden says. "Simon tracks all of my spending; he'd find us in minutes.

I've only got about sixty dollars in cash after the diner."

"I don't have much cash, either." Between getting a new outfit for the festival and buying Christmas presents to bring back to Ellis, I am pretty much tapped out in the cash department.

"I could charge it on my mom's card," Tobin suggests.

"No," I say, dismissing the idea without explanation. I don't want Tobin's mom getting wind of our location, either. "I guess we could try to get a cheap motel room off the strip."

"Um, no," Lexie says. "No way! If I'm going to be held hostage in Vegas, it is not going to happen in some bedbug-ridden, pay-by-the hour motel. We're going to the Crossroads Casino and Hotel. My dad is one of the owners. I can get us a room."

The Crossroads? For someone who had never stayed in a hotel, let alone in Vegas, I realize the name strikes a familiar chord. "And how do we know you're not going to just rat us out and try to make a break for it?" I ask her.

"Because we're in Vegas. And you know what they say: what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. You guys can go search for this 'Oracle' all you want. I'll go run up a spa bill on my daddy's tab and hitch a ride home with you guys when you all come back to your senses."

"Won't your parents mind?"

"They've gone to Belize for the holidays-without me. They've been gone for three weeks already, so they won't even know." She crosses her arms around her orange purse. "Frankly, this little ride on the crazy-town express is the most fun I've had in months. So, no, I'm not going to rat you out and make a break for it. I'm going to get a chemical peel, a mani-pedi, and run up a room service bill like you've never seen."

Considering I've never seen a room service bill, I don't doubt it. I also don't doubt that she's telling the truth. It seems very Lexie to turn a kidnapping into a luxury weekend getaway.

"Now head up this street and turn left," she orders.

"You heard the woman," I say to Haden.

chapter forty-nine.

haden

We decide to ditch the Tesla in a parking garage several blocks from the hotel and head out onto what Lexie calls the strip. At first, I am worried that we will be easily spotted out in the open, but this street is so cram packed with people, it's a struggle just to stay together as a group. A cl.u.s.ter of people, dressed in red pointy hats with white b.a.l.l.s on the ends, sing as they walk in front of us, but they don't sound nearly as good as Daphne. The hotels are lit up like beacons, and large evergreen trees strung with lights are everywhere. I don't know how much of this is normal Vegas fare and how much of it is for of the humans' upcoming Christmas celebration. People b.u.mp into me as we walk, making me feel off balance, and a strange smoke chokes my lungs. I see that it's coming from a group of men who line the road, smoking what I recall are cigarettes. One of the men sees me looking at him and he shoves a flier into my hand. "Good times, good times," he mumbles as I pa.s.s.

I look down at the paper and see a mostly naked woman, wearing only two thin strips of red material lined with white fur, standing in a very . . . evocative position.

"You planning on making a visit to 's.e.xy Mrs. Claus'?" Daphne asks.

Heat rushes into my face and hands. I drop the paper, feeling strangely ashamed that she saw me looking at it.

"Don't take anything from anyone," Tobin advises me. "And avoid making eye contact." I nod and pick up my pace, hoping not to get lost in the chaos of the strip. I am glad when we enter the hotel at first, but I can still feel the grime from the street clinging to me. The lobby is so bright, it hurts my eyes. A sea of potted red flowers fills most of the s.p.a.ce, encircling another tall evergreen tree strung with shimmering lights, stretching up to the vaulted ceiling. Garish, glittering globes of green and red hang from almost everything. Loud, grating, overly cheerful music fills the lobby from an unknown source, and an additional barrage of noise and flashing lights come from an area called the casino. It's all so overwhelming to the senses, I almost want to retreat back outside.

I don't understand why humans would want to come here to relax.

Garrick collapses into a plush chair in the lobby, looking as though he might vomit again. If I find this place overwhelming, I'm sure his throbbing head can barely handle it.

"Hey," Tobin says to Daphne, pointing at the entrance to the Crossroads Blues Club on the other side of the casino floor. "Isn't that the club where your dad got his big break?"

"Yeah," she says, after thinking for a moment. "I thought this place sounded familiar. Some big talent scout saw him play here . . . which INTO THE DARK 407.

means this is also the place where my parents met. Weird." "I'm going to go talk to the front desk," Lexie says, and makes her way through the crowd in the lobby. I can't get over the amount of people there are here. Daphne is right, finding this Sara Smith in a city this overrun feels improbable, if not impossible.

"So how do we find this Oracle?" Tobin asks. "The sooner I can get a lead on Abbie, the better."

Daphne and I exchange a look.

"I think you need to tell him," I say. I feel gutted at the idea that, because of me and my family, she has to share such horrible news with her best friend. I'd do it myself, but I know he'll take it better from her than from me.

"Tobin, can I talk to you for a minute?" she asks him. "In private."

"Yeah, of course."

I watch her lead him to an empty bench near a fountain in the lobby. The spray of the water drowns out their voices, and I am too far away to read their lips, but I can tell from their body language that Daphne is filling Tobin in on what Dax told us-or didn't tell us-about what happened to his sister. She places her hand over his. His bright face darkens, and he crumples forward against her shoulder. I turn away, no longer able to watch.

It's a good ten minutes later when Lexie returns from the front desk. "There's some big teen talent contest or some garbage being hosted by the club tonight, so the place is pretty booked up.

I couldn't get the penthouse, but I did manage to swing us a twobedroom suite. A room with a king and the other has two queens.

I don't know how you all want to deal with your sleeping arrangements, but I finagled the room, so I call dibs on the king." "I don't care," Tobin says, approaching with Daphne. "As long as I'm not sharing a bed with him." He gives me a pointed look that says that even though I wasn't here six years ago, he's holding me responsible for what happened to his sister.

"Tobin, I-"

"Save it," he says. "I'm not giving up on Abbie until that Oracle looks me in the face and tells me there's no way to get her back." "I don't think . . ." I let my sentence trail off, not seeing the point of trying to dissuade him otherwise. Some people won't see the truth, no matter how hard you point it out to them.

"Now can we go to our room?" Tobin says.

"Yeeessss," Garrick answers, sounding like he's about to black out again.

"Suit yourself," Lexie says, handing us each a key card. "I'm headed to the spa."

Daphne hangs back. "I think I'm going to stay down here for a while," she says.

She doesn't quite sound like herself.

chapter fifty.